Selected: DARLEY, HUGH *

Born: 1701

Died: 1771

Stonecutter and architect, of Dublin. Hugh Darley, a younger son of HENRY DARLEY [1] HENRY DARLEY [1] of Newtownards, Co. Down, was born in 1701.(1) He had presumably moved to Dublin by 1725, when he is reported as having built a house on Bachelor's Walk.(2) He worked with his brother MOSES DARLEY MOSES DARLEY at Trinity College, Dublin in 1740(3) and was working as a stonecutter on the Four Courts in 1749.(4) In the 1850s and 1860s hes back in Trinity as the builder in charge of the erection of the west front and Parliament Square, the rebuilding of the dining hall and - with a George Darley, presumably GEORGE DARLEY [1] - GEORGE DARLEY [1] - of the provost's house.(5) He first appears in Wilson's Dublin Directory in 1761, where he is designated 'architect'. He is presumably the 'Mr Darley' whom the committee of the Dublin Society considered asking for plans and estimates for proposed new premises in Anglesea Street in 1764.(6) He is known to have worked in Cos. Antrim, Down, Louth and Westmeath(7) as well as in Dublin.

Hugh Darley's death in 1771 is noted in Faulkner's Dublin Journal for 10-12 December, where he is described as having been 'formerly an eminent stonecutter'. He was twice married, first to Elizabeth Caldbeck and second, in 1744, to Catherine Shepheard.(8) A daughter, Sarah, married ROBERT BALL ROBERT BALL in April 1755.(9)

'Mr Darley' paid Â£27 for work on rebuilding parish church. (Hugh or Arthur?)

Refs:

Information from William Roulston, citing Downpatrick Church of Ireland vestry minute book (MIC/1/38); exterior of church illus. in Fred Rankin, ed., Clergy of Down and Dromore (Ulster Historical Foundation, 1996), 104, and Claude Costegalde & Brian Walker, The Church of Ireland: an illustrated history (2013), 191.

Payment of of Â£11 10s. 5Â½d made HD by Robert Maxwell, 14 Apr 1742. As nothing else in accounts suggests that he was involved in work to the house at Finnebrogue, payment was possibly for new C of I church (Inch parish) dated 1742 by Lewis..

Refs:

Accounts of Robert Maxwell of Finnebrogue, PRONI D/1556/16/14/10 (information from William Roulston)

Work on West Front supervised by HD, who had been sent to London to procure designs for same. (North angle ready for roofing and part of West front being pulled down, 1755 (Universal Advertiser, 6 Mar 1755); finished by beginning of 1759 (|Pue's Occurrences|, 20 Jan 1759)